PUBLISHING LITERARY FICTION IN AN AGE OF LITE READING

Publisher’s Lunch has an item about the diminishing market for fiction in Australia. What is happening in Australia is not isolated. It is a worldwide phenomenon: “The Australian is concerned about "three certainties about Australian fiction today: fewer books are being published, sales are falling and shelf-lives are shorter." The focus of their case study is novelist Brian Castro, whose seventh novel SHANGHAI DANCING was turned down by a number of large publishers before being issues by independent house Giramondo. ("Within months, Castro had trumped respected rivals - including Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee - to take out the main fiction prizes in the NSW and Victorian premiers' literary awards.")”